Poesía

War And Peace

How sad it is, that the Torre de los Ingleses,

A ‘Big Ben clone,’ as Lonely Planet calls it,

Has now been changed to the Torre Monumental,

Standing in the renamed Plaza Fuerza Aérea Argentina,

No longer held in pride and friendship

With Britain.  How miserable and mean

Was the Falklands War.

 

Centuries of hassle over those damned islands

In a different era, when control of them

Was so important for trade,

Navigation, and Empire - both for Britain and Spain;-

Should not have resulted in 1982

In an old kind of war in a new kind of world.

Those habits and reflexes should have been controlled;

Are we always going to have disputes thus resolved,

By the clash of force and armed might,

As if, when two neighbours dispute a piece

Of land in their garden, the solution were

For them to pick up a sharp axe each

And fight to the death of one, over it:

Is this the answer to infinitely complex questions

Of political justice - just to bash,

As of old, with guns and killing?